Hazret Sovmen
Hazret Medzhidovich Sovmen ( ) (born , ) was the second President of Adygea, having succeeded Aslan Dzharimov at the post. Sovmen is a university professor hailing from Maykop. Before he became the President, Hazret Sovmen had been a successful businessman (with links to n entrepreneurs in Siberia), having started off as a bulldozer driver in a gold mine in . He is the founder of Polyus Gold, Adygea's leading gold-mining company. For his enormous personal contribution to the development of the gold mining industry in Adygea, Hazret Sovmen was awarded State Order of Honor and State Order for Service to Homeland and other honorary medals. Sovmen's interests include and . Early life Sovmen was born in 1937 in Afipsip village of the Adyghe SSR in the Krasnodar District. In 1961, having finished school and his term in the army, Hazret volunteered to work on Kolyma gold mines. Thus he started his career in gold mining as worker. In 1966, Hazret Sovmen was elected chairman of Voskhod gold mining cooperative and in 1969 took the chair in Soyuz cooperative. In 1980, the government invited Hazret Somen to move to Krasnoyarsk District to head lead Eniseyzoloto Mining company and develop gold mining in the area. Soon after that he organized the Polyus Gold mining cooperative to set up gold mines in the most remote areas of Krasnoyarsk region and even on the Bolshevik island in the Arctic Ocean. In 1983, Polyus joined Olympiada mine project, the largest in Russia, and in the early 1990s it was reorganised in a closed joint stock company. Move to Maykop and university tenure tbw Our Adygea movement leader In 2000, Sovmen became the administrative head of the "Our Adygea" political coalition, which received a significant number of seats in the State Council (Khase), even though Sovmen had not been running for a seat in Parliament. However, the number of seats won wasn't enough for a majority, and the efforts to unify with other opposition parties failed. Since then, Sovmen has remained the leader and public face of the "Our Adygea" parliament faction. Sovmen was widely regarded as a the head of the anti-Dzharimov coalition, given that Our Adygea was the most influential party in Parliament (other parties did not attain a significant number of seats in the previous election), and was generally a more moderate politician than other candidates. At the beginning of the next campaign season in late 2001, Sovmen announced his intention to run for President, and was widely supported for his willingness to negotiate and arguably his not being a Communist—Sovmen ardently denounces Communists, as it stands. Sovmen is widely perceived as a moderate Adygean nationalist and pro- supporter of democratic ideals. Under his administration, the economy also saw widespread . However, the economy failed to show real growth during his administration, which in large part contributed to his loss of the 2006-07 election. However, Sovmen has remained a leader emeritus of the Our Adygea movement. 2002 presidential election In 2001, as Dzharimov's term came to a close, Sovmen announced that he would be running as an candidate for the Presidency. His main rival was Prime Minister Nikolay Avdienko. Over the two years since his surfacing in politics, Sovmen had refined his political platform to include integration with and the , as well as a commitment to fighting corruption. Dandelion Revolution The initial vote, held on , , witnessed Sovmen (38.33%) leading Dzharimov (36.2%). Since neither candidate reached the 50% threshold, a was declared and held on . Although there was a very high voter turnout (over 80%, according to some international observers), there was widespread , including so-called "motor voting", casting more than one ballot and addition of votes after the polls had closed. In response to the allegations of fraud, in addition to the radically-different exit poll results vis-à-vis the recorded results, thousands of protesters marched on the Adygean Supreme Court, demanding an overturn, in what has been dubbed the Dandelion Revolution, for the bouquets of dandelions—a symbol of peace and nonviolence—that the protesters carried. Yellow flags were also prominently displayed. After two straight weeks of protest in front of its building in Maykop (and other cities), the Court decided to overturn the election in a 4-3 decision on . Another runoff election was declared, and was scheduled to be held on . Hazret won with 59.8% of the vote. President Inauguration Presidency See also * List of national leaders * Dandelion Revolution * Politics of Adygea * Adygean presidential election, 2002 – }} Sovmen, Hazret Medzhidovich Sovmen, Hazret Medzhidovich Sovmen, Hazret Medzhidovich Category:Circassian people